Harper looks to boost manufacturing; too little too late says Trudeau

OTTAWA – The Conservative government is considering a strong focus on the manufacturing sector in the upcoming budget, part of a general shift in attention towards Ontario and its prospective voters.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has faced sharp criticism from the opposition parties that he has ignored Canada’s industrial heartland in favour of the energy sector in his home province.

“While Mr. Harper was busy not caring about manufacturing jobs drying up, his finance minister was telling Ontarians they had ‘no one to blame but themselves,”‘ Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said in a speech to caucus earlier this week in London, Ont.

Harper and his ministers have been concentrating much of their energy in the province, whose manufacturers and exporters stand to benefit from the sagging loonie.

Harper also finally agreed to meet with Wynne earlier this month, the first time in more than a year.

“The oil industry isn’t remotely the entire Canadian economy,” Harper said at an event Thursday in St. Catharines, Ont., as he spoke about the impact of plummeting oil prices.

Industry Minister James Moore recently told CBC News that while the government has done much to advance the cause of oil pipelines, its up to the companies involved to deliver.

That’s a different tone than Harper took shortly after he took office, when he told a British audience that Canada was an “energy superpower,” and that oilsands development was akin to building the Great Wall of China or the pyramids. It was a phrase that would emerge again during a 2012 trip to China.

Senior Conservative sources emphasize that manufacturing has always been on the radar — a two-year extension of the temporary capital cost allowance for equipment and machinery appeared in the 2013 budget. Southern Ontario’s auto industry was also given billions in bailout money in late 2008.

But they also suggest that more help for the sector is top of mind as the April budget is being put together. For example, the accelerated capital cost allowance lets companies write-off the cost of machinery more quickly, thereby lowering their tax bill. One option is to make that a permanent measure.

Harper specifically referred to manufacturing this week, when he dismissed the suggestion his government should readjust its economic plan.

The government is already doing plenty to foster economic health, he said, including “cutting red tape, programs to aid the creation of small business and small business jobs, programs to aid in innovation, programs to ensure the manufacturing sector is strong and growing and revitalized, negotiations to open new markets to trade, and keeping our taxes low.”

Alberta for years have had the luxury of a 2 to 3 per cent unemployment rate and with it good paying jobs, all the more power to them, after all we are all Canadians in the long run. But in Ontario,Quebec and Eastern Canada the employment picture was not good, so what did the Harper Conservatives do to help, they paid Senior Administration Employees at Employment Insurance bonuses for cutting off E.I checks to people who desperately needed these funds to put food on the table for their families. The Harper Conservatives are the most mean spirited government in Canadian history, the end is near for these creeps.

Harper had nothing to do with Buzz Hargroves fantastic union deal the caused the shutdown of several major auto plants, nor did he raise provincial taxes and utility costs that ate the profit margins to the bone causing other companies to shut down and move away..neither did he create the $280 billion debt crisis or the $12 billion deficit Ontario must labour under…but he did reduce the corporate tax rate down to 15% and spend $15 billion to bail out Chrysler and G.M., saving 20,000 jobs.. and …he has just announced a huge $ 40 billion in military contracts in Ontario and the Maritimes..as usual Trudeau is a day late and a dollar short and he knows Harper just ate his lunch

is that all you have…they will bonce back…eastern Canada is up to it’s ass in debt. as of Dec. 2014…gross provincial debt…western Canada…$66 billion….total provincial debt …eastern Canada over $500 billion…and the free money from western Canada is about to dry up so if you think kicking out Harper and electing greenhorn junior and his band of newbies is the answer…dream on ..

Brent. The debt in Ontario started way back and the destruction of manufacturing started with free trade deals designed to lower wages of workers or ship jobs to low paying regimes across the globe. when wil
l you guys figure it out. Con govts are neo-liberals that are for a market driven society backed by the govt. You fail to mention harper’s tax cuts for the rich and the corps that has added $180 BILLON onto our debt. You also forget to mention the raiding of the EI fund, downloading to the provinces and the $36 billion cut to healthcare.

moose droppings….Under NAFTA, Canadian manufacturers had much greater access to the then huge U.S. Michigan marketplace, however the auto companies were out of synch and failed to retool gasoline efficient auto’s and because of the huge increase in gas pump price, Japan ate their lunch.. The non-union Japanese companies could turn on a dime, while G.M. for example, with it’s huge punitive union contracts and liberal pension plans (which adds an additional cost of $2000.00 per unit), ate away any profit margin. They are now turning out electric cars that are being sold at $50,000.00 under production cost. G.M. manufactures almost as many automobiles as Toyota., 9.3 million units vs 9.75 million units…Toyota is one of the most profitable companies in the world…G.M. is facing bankruptcy again. In 1980 North America held a 35% market share…today 15%..that is why Harper is concentrating on oil sands expansion because new plants and pipelines create manufacturing jobs in Ontario…you birds need to stop living in cloud cookooland.